Friday, September 28, 2012

Dallas Won't Back Down

The movie "Won't Back Down" comes out this weekend. Having seen all the trailers available on this enticing film, (see http://www.wbdtoolkit.com/), and having read many of the reviews, I'm planning to see it for one
reason: to meditate on the power of parents working together to improve their child’s school.

Parents have awesome power in today's
political climate. Their neighborhood schools, and not charter schools, should
be the target for everyone. Look at what Rosemont Elementary parents have already done right here in Dallas ISD! Such involvement and transitions everywhere in each of our 230 schools will change Dallas ISD into
the envy of the nation!

Every parent should put their dreams for their
child into a letter to their child. Then go to school often and help it happen.
Such "dream" letters need to be written every few years for
a child. It's the only focus that counts as a parent. Every neighborhood school should be
facilitating such parental dreams. The
mothers in these movie trailers do not seem crazy to me. The solution they apparently
chose may not have been the most practical, but their ultimate goals seem to be
on target. But let's see the movie.

========= after seeing the movie =========

I've now seen the movie. It is certainly choreographed to maximize
emotion. Parents demanding school improvements for their children and
chanting “We will not wait!” was one such moment. Another was the
presentation on prison construction planning using student
performance in elementary school to project the future need. Again
parents chanted “Hands off my kid!” in response to such designs
on their children. Otherwise the movie was not connected to reality.
(Yes, such prison planning is reality!)

We still need to be
working on solutions to the inadequate performance in too many public schools, real solutions, like moving toward a k-8 centeredschool system, with actively involved, future-focused parents and
students.